Lifer Juice
by ltjvt1026
Summary: Gibbs,coffee & bourbon. Need I say more? Please R&R.
1. Coffee

**Disclaimer: NCIS is copyrighted material belonging to DPB, Don McGill, et al. I'm just a poor boy with my nose pressed up against the glass.**

**Author's Note:** I'm having a major case of writer's block with my next Mike Franks story. This story came to me in the WaWa while I was waiting for the 100% Columbian to brew up. I'm hoping it will unblock me.

**Technical Notes-** Jargon and slang ahead:

**SOI-** School of Infantry. After Boot Camp, where new Marines with an Infantry MOS go to learn their trade. The SOI is at Camp Lejuene.

**MOS-** Military Occupational Specialty. Your job in the Corps.

**Float- **At sea deployment. Usually lasts six to eight months.

**USS Trenton (LPD-14)-** Austin class amphibious transport dock. Carried 1436 Marines. Sold to the Indian Navy, January 2007.

**Sea daddy-** Older experienced Marine or Sailor who mentors his younger subordinates.

**Bug juice- **Sweet Kool Aid type drink served in Navy and Marine mess halls. Comes in red, blue and green with no taste difference between the three.

**Gibbs' kitchen** **Saturday 0600 hrs.**

The coffee maker hissed and popped signaling it had finished brewing. Leroy Jethro Gibbs got up from the kitchen table and poured his first cup of the day. The taste of the Jamaican blend made him smile.

"_**Lifer juice."**_

It was what Staff Sergeant Francis X. Moran had called coffee. When Gibbs had been a young Marine fresh out of SOI, Moran had been his platoon sergeant. It was Jethro's first "float" as a Marine. A six month deployment to the Med aboard the USS Trenton (LPD-14). Sgt. Moran had taken Gibbs under his wing, becoming his "sea daddy".

The platoon sergeant had mentored many Marines in his career. Showing them what they needed to know to function in the Fleet. Some of his advice needed to be taken with a grain of salt however. Moran's advice about how to conduct yourself on shore leave for example. If you looked closely at his uniform sleeve you'd see the faint shadow of where the extra rocker of a Gunnery Sergeant's chevron used to be.

Gibbs moved towards the basement. He wanted to get a good days work in on the boat. Later he would be going over to Ziva's for dinner. Abby had organized a "team bonding" event and got Ziva to cook. Abby got Gibbs to come by using her status as his "favorite", knowing he wouldn't refuse her.

As the day went by, the first pot of coffee disappeared. The second pot was brewing as Gibbs idly looked out his kitchen window.

"_**Lifer juice."**_

Staff Sergeant Moran used to drink his coffee black, no sugar.

"_Out in the boonies lad, sugar and milk can be hard to come by."_

Jethro had never really been a coffee drinker before joining the Corps. Even during boot camp, he drank either milk or "bug juice". After boot camp, during infantry training at Camp Lejuene, he had the occasional cup.

That all changed when he started serving with Sgt. Moran. In the two years he knew him, Gibbs rarely saw his mentor without a coffee cup in his hand. Jethro had held out the longest of any of the good sergeant's protégés. He lasted three months. Ever since that time he has been well and truly hooked.

Even in the field, Moran at the earliest opportunity would dig a small coffee pot out of his ruck. He would brew up a pot from grounds he had gotten a cook aboard ship to make. Gibbs had always ragged Moran about his "custom coffee".

"_Just because I'm sleeping in a hole in the ground, doesn't mean I can't have a decent cup of coffee lad."_

By 1700, Gibbs called it a day. His hands, arms and shoulders were sore. He was ready for a shower and dinner. Before heading upstairs he cleaned the coffee maker. Readying it for tomorrow's round of "lifer juice".

**A/N: **While my addiction to coffee is not as profound as Gibbs', I still have to have at least 32 ounces of coffee a day or I can be a bit grumpy. As has been pointed out by my muse's assistant, this really isn't a story per se. It's more like background. I'm thinking about doing a story about bourbon next. What do you guys think? The green button's below. Give it a push.


	2. Bourbon

**Disclaimer: The TV series NCIS and its characters do not belong to me. There is no profit being made by yours truly. My only reward is the reviews you guys gift me with.**

**Authors Note: **It's been almost a year since I've even _thought_ about this story. But for some reason I opened my idea book and it fell open to this section. I looked over the research and a 'character study' started forming. Possibly because the Season 8 opener is Tuesday. I don't know. I'm also not sure about this 'character study'. It sounds good to me, but I've been fooled by my muse before. Hope ya like it.

**Bourbon whiskey is an American whiskey made primarily from corn. It's been made in Kentucky since the 1700's. On May 4, 1964 Bourbon whiskey was recognized by the US Congress as a distinctive product of the United States.**

"_When I find the time, I'm going to write the social history of bourbon."_- **Rock Hudson as Col. James Langdon, 'The Undefeated', 1969**

"_How well I remember my first encounter with The Devil's Brew. I happened to stumble across a case of bourbon, and went right on stumbling for several days thereafter"_- **W C Fields**

"_A respectable amount of bourbon to pour in a glass is about two fingers worth. Lucky for me I have big fingers."_- **Fredrick Booker Noe II, former master distiller of Jim Beam**

**Gibbs house, present day**, **0245hrs**

Before February 28, 1991, Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a beer man. Growing up in Pennsylvania's coal country he drank either Iron City or Yuengling beer. Hard liquor was too expensive.

Even on that fateful day in 1991 Gibbs was drinking beer. His 'stick' just came off an arduous mission behind Iraqi lines. They'd been enjoying a case of beer provided by their CO. Just as the stick was breaking up, Colonel Ryan and Sergeant Major Matt Brown arrived, bearing bad news and Jack Daniel's respectively. Jethro still remembers how the whiskey burned all the way down.

Now many years later Gibbs knows that on that day he'd drank Tennessee whiskey, not bourbon. It doesn't matter though. The outcome is what is important. _Numbness._

It was Mike Franks who'd educated Gibbs (big surprise). They'd hit the Code Four Lounge to unwind after a tough case. As they sat down at the bar Gibbs called out their order.

"_A Corona with a slice of lime and I'll have a bourbon neat."_

The bartender reached for the bottle of Jim Beam on the back bar when Gibbs' voice stopped him.

"_Hey, Jack Daniel's"_

The bartender shrugged and picked up the square bottle. As the drinks were delivered, Mike Franks turned to his Probie.

"_Hate to break it to you Gibbs, but Jack Daniel's is Tennessee whiskey, not bourbon."_

"_What do you mean Boss?"_

"_Well, Jack Daniel's is sour mash that's filtered through maple charcoal before aging. It's made in Tennessee. Bourbon is fermented and then distilled, after which it goes into charred oak barrels for aging. Bourbon primarily comes from Kentucky."_

So from then on Gibbs drank Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam Black Label interchangeably. Over the years Gibbs drank beer too. But bourbon was his poison of choice when he needed to get numb.

In 1999 Jethro came back from Europe, his life again in turmoil. He went down to Mexico to see his retired mentor, Mike Franks. They were sitting in Carlos' Cantina, Gibbs drinking Jim Beam and Mike in sympathy drinking Jameson Irish Whiskey.

"_Been a long time since I've seen you drink Jameson Boss."_

Franks looked bemused but serious.

"_Sometimes Probie, beer just don't cut it."_

Over the next decade the mantra "basement, boat, bourbon" kept Gibbs sane through deaths and upheaval. Now though it looked like 1991 may come back to bite him in the ass. He stood in the living room, a glass of Jim Beam in one hand and a slip of paper reading "Sometimes You're Wrong" in the other.

_God, he hoped not._

**A/N: **Okay, I can finally put 'Lifer Juice' to rest. Only took a year. As I said above, I'm not sure about it. Let me know what _you _think.


End file.
